News

03February2017

Skills and training providers gathered to hear how to bid for a new wave of funding designed to help address skills gaps, training needs and unemployment for young people in Nottingham.

The European Social Fund (ESF) open call workshop was held earlier today at Nottingham City Council Offices, to help organisations across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire bid for a share of European funding. It featured speakers from Nottingham City Council and Richard Kirkland (pictured), ESIF Co-Ordinator at the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

D2N2 is the LEP for the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire area and works with Government, businesses, local authorities, skills and training providers and community and voluntary organisations to grow its areas economy, with the aim of creating 55,000 new jobs in ten years (2013-2023).

As part of this, D2N2 has an allocation of €250m European Structural and Investment Funds, which is released in sections at regular intervals, with ‘calls’ for potential projects run by organisations to bid for the money.

This latest call in the D2N2 area means that organisations with an interest in skills gaps, training needs and youth unemployment in the Nottingham City Area have until March 12, 2017 to bid for a share of £774,000 to help address these issues.

Once the deadline has closed the project bids received will be assessed by the D2N2 LEP. It is assumed that projects which receive funding must be completed by July 2018. They will be assessed as they progress, to ensure they are meeting their targets.

David Ralph, Chief Executive of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “Skills lies at the heart of the D2N2 LEP’s Growth Strategy.

“Helping people gain skills which get them into work and then to develop knowledge which progresses their career is good for individuals, and the resulting pool of potential employees with the skills needed to plug gaps in their workforce is good for businesses.